Should You Buy Real Estate In Central America?
You’ve read about the affordable real estate options in Nicaragua, the luxury oceanfront resorts in Costa Rica, the world-class dive spots in Belize and the bustling expatriate communities in Panama, but are they for you? In this article we provide three initial steps to get you started. Our goal is to make the process less intimidating and also get you moving in the right direction.
Your first step to consider is whether you’re buying for personal use or for an investment. Depending on the answer, the options that you would consider may be quite different. For example, if you’re purchasing simply for investment you may decide to buy in an area that’s not very well developed now, but that holds the promise of future growth down the line. You’d want to get in early and profit as prices rise. But if you’re looking to use the property personally, you’ll want to be close to amenities, in a location that is well serviced by good quality infrastructure and perhaps even have access to a local ex-pat community. Of course some property options will fall somewhere in between, but you’ll be better able to tease them out if you have a clear idea about what you’re looking for in the first place.
Your second step is to make contact with all the active real estate agents in your target market(s). Unlike in the US, you can’t rely on one agent to tap into a central database, like the Multiple Listing Service, and provide you with all the options available. What happens in practice is that each agent manages their own listings database. So you want to be in contact with all of them to ensure you get information on all the property options for sale. When it comes to understanding price trends and values you going to have to do quite a lot of the legwork yourself and take what you hear with a pinch of salt.
The third step is to get in contact with a qualified real estate attorney. Remember that in places like Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua all the closing documents will be in Spanish. So unless you’re fluent in legal Spanish, choose an attorney who can speak English. It’s highly recommended to take out a title insurance policy on your purchase. Although this is not a legal requirement, it will force your attorney to dig deeply into the title history and also protects you from any future problems that may arise. Not all local attorneys have been accredited by title insurance companies, so check this first.